Medical imaging can be used to identify which dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients are at a greater risk of experiencing a major cardiac event, according to new research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging.
The study’s authors tracked more than 1,600 DCM patients who underwent cardiac MRI scans at one of 12 different institutions in the United States, Canada, Spain and Italy. The mean patient age was 56 years old and 71% of patients were male.
Overall, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was present in the MRI results of 39% of patients. LGE was associated with a greater risk of experiencing major cardiac events, including sudden cardiac death.
“We have tended to think of DCM as one type of heart disease and that all patients should respond the same way, but we are learning that it is a collection of disease states that affect each patient differently,” corresponding author James White, MD, of the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine, said in a statement. “The purpose of our study was to see if we could find individual patient features that can help us prescribe life-saving therapies, such as the implantable cardioverter defibrillator.”
All patient information used for the study came from the MINICOR (Multimodal International Cardiovascular Outcomes Registry), a registry White and his colleagues developed to provide research teams with “highly standardized” data related to cardiovascular disease.
“We can have a much greater impact on patient care and on clinical practice in general when we work together,” White said. “The true benefit of initiatives like this is our ability to test innovative ideas quickly and show they can work in different health-care systems and patient populations.”
The full study from Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.